Judge Thomas Mellon

Judge Thomas Alexander Mellon

Judge and the Founder of Mellon Bank (now known as BNY Mellon)

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 11092588
• Judge Thomas Mellon's Wikipedia Page

Mellon was born to farmers Andrew Mellon and Rebecca Wauchob on February 3, 1813, at Camp Hill Cottage, Lower Castletown, Parish of Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, now Northern Ireland. In 1816, his grandfather, Archibald Mellon, emigrated to the United States, settling in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Andrew and his family followed just two years later.

After his graduation from the University of Pittsburgh, he obtained work in a Pittsburgh law office, and became clerk for the Allegheny County prothonotary. He was himself admitted to the bar on December 15, 1838, and opened his own law firm, focusing on civil litigation.

On August 22, 1843, he married Sarah Jane Negley, daughter of Jacob and Barbara and aunt of James S. Negley, after a long—and frustrating—courtship. Soon thereafter, he embarked on a long and successful legal career in Pittsburgh. In 1859, he was elected assistant judge of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and on December 1 began a ten-year judicial career.

Mellon invested the proceeds from his legal work shrewdly, buying up large portions of downtown Pittsburgh real estate. In late 1869, he decided to retire from the bench, and rather than return to the legal profession, "concluded to open a banking house." On January 2, 1870, he opened the T. Mellon & Sons' Bank with his sons Andrew W. and Richard B. Above the cast iron door of the original bank building at 145 Smithfield Street was placed a near life-sized statue of his inspiration, Benjamin Franklin.

He nearly lost his estate in the Panic of 1873—an economic depression in which half of Pittsburgh's ninety organized banks and twelve private banks failed — but prevailed, and was well placed to prosper when the economy again began to expand. Shrewd investments included real estate holdings in downtown Pittsburgh, coal fields, and a $10,000 loan to Henry Clay Frick in 1871, which would provide the coke for Andrew Carnegie's steel mills.

In 1877, Mellon was approached to finance the Ligonier Valley Railroad. In 1878 he acquired land around the railroad just west of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, where he began a picnic park, Idlewild. Additional land in the Ligonier Valley which he once owned is now the Rolling Rock Club.

On January 5, 1882, he retired from day-to-day management of the bank's affairs, handing it to his 26-year-old son, Andrew. Under A.W. and R.B.'s management, Mellon Bank was by the end of the century the largest banking institution in the country outside of New York. He divested himself of most of the rest of his property on February 3, 1890, leaving it in the hands of his sons.

Mellon died on his 95th birthday, February 3, 1908, at his home in East Liberty. He was survived by his wife, who lived for about a year after his death, and three children. Thomas Mellon and his wife Sarah are buried in Pittsburgh's Allegheny Cemetery.

Family

Mellon was Presbyterian by faith. Though not devoutly religious, he was a member and supporter of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, the land for which had been originally contributed by the Negley family.

He maintained a "country house" at 401 North Negley Avenue in East Liberty, where he indulged a passion for horticulture, raising fruit trees and other crops. He also took an interest in the poetry of Robert Burns and in the history of Ireland. He was said to have remarked "the only way to settle the Irish question would be to sink the island."

Thomas and Sarah Mellon had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood:

• Thomas Alexander Mellon, born June 26, 1844, married to Mary C. Caldwell, sister of Alexander Caldwell, U.S. Senator of Kansas; father of Thomas Alexander Mellon, III and the architect Edward Purcell Mellon.
• James Ross Mellon, born January 14, 1846, married to Rachel Hughey Larimer, daughter of railroad and land baron William Larimer; their son was William Larimer Mellon.
• Sarah Emma Mellon (died in childhood).
• Annie Rebecca Mellon (died in childhood).
• Samuel Selwyn Mellon (died 1862, at age 9).
• Andrew William Mellon, born March 24, 1855, died August 26, 1937.
• Richard Beatty Mellon, born March 19, 1858, died December 1, 1933, married to Jennie King, daughter of Alexander and Cordelia King.
• George Negley Mellon, born June 30, 1860, died April 15, 1887.

Mellon entrusted his sons with business ventures from very early ages. By the age of 21, his son Tom had raised, with his son Jim, some $100,000 operating a nursery, lumber yard and construction supply business, and Andrew was managing a theatre at the age of 17. Well-prepared for business, the Mellon family ranked among the wealthiest and most prominent industrialists in the United States by the time of Judge Mellon's death in 1908.

DIES AT RIPE OLD AGE.

Pittsburg, Feb. 3 - Judge Thomas D. Mellon, one of Pittsburg's foremost citizens and well known throughout the country as a banker and capitalist, died here today on his ninety-fifth birthday."

Tuesday, February 4, 1908
Paper: Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana)
Volume: XIX, Issue: 154, Page: 12
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The World of Thomas Mellon by C. Hax McCullough, Jr.

Judge Thomas Mellon was a leader among men, highly honored by his friends and associates, and a completely self made man. Among his many achievements he founded T. Mellon & Son's Bank, ancestor of today's giant banking institution, Mellon Bank.

Thomas Mellon began his life in 1813 on a farm in County Tyrone, province of Ulster, Northern Ireland. With his parents he emigrated to the United States in 1818 and settled on a farm three miles from Murrysville in Westmoreland County. The Mellon's ancestry was originally Scottish - Thomas' great, great grandfather had moved from Scotland to Northern Ireland in 1660. The Mellons were all farmers and their rigorous life was full of struggle and unending labor.

Inspired by Franklin

When they came to America, Andrew Mellon, Thomas Mellon's father, his mother and he landed in Baltimore, and made the arduous journey by Conestoga wagon over the mountains to their new Pennsylvania home.

Guided by his mother and inspired by the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas yearned for reading, travel and education. The more he read, the more he wanted to know, he got what education he could nearby and decided that his future lay in the professions rather than with the soil.

In October 1834, without fear and with almost no money, Thomas Mellon enrolled in the Western University (now the University of Pittsburgh), completing his studies over five years.

Thomas Mellon, attorney at law, entered the practice of law and prospered. His fees were low, his hours long and his dedication to his clients was unstinting. He rapidly built a reputation.

A Fruitful Union

With money and a prospering practice Thomas Mellon set out to find a wife. The object of his affection was Sarah Jane Negley. They were married on August 22, 1834.

In the years that followed, Thomas Mellon and his Sarah were blessed with eight children, four of whom died: two as infants, one at the age of nine and another at the age of 26. The four who survived became famous men, two of whom - Andrew W. Mellon - and Richard B. Mellon - attained worldwide fame in banking, business, government, philanthropy and the arts.

Adherence to Law

Thomas Mellon was elected Judge, Court of Common Pleas, took his place on the bench and began his judicial life on December 1, 1859. He was a strict enforcer of the law on the bench as he had been as an attorney pleading his client's cause before it. When a crime had been committed he firmly believed in proper enforcement of the law.

As Judge Mellon's ten year term came to a close, he looked to the future with his usual confidence. Business was good and he longed to take a more active part in it. "At length, after a continuous session of over six weeks in the criminal court, I delivered my last charge to the jury and took my last verdict; and on the first Monday of December, 1869, stepped down and out and was again a free man," he related. "And above all this I had two bright boys just out of school, the idols of my heart, merging on manhood, and with fine business capacities, whom I was eager to launch on this floor tide of business prosperity, and to pilot them in the channel for some part of their way."*

A Pittsburgh Bank

At liberty again, Judge Mellon, "concluded to open a banking house." This he did about December 1, 1869. The doors were opened for business on January 2, 1870 in a tiny rented office on Smithfield Street where the Oliver Builder now stands.

"The banking business was unusually active at the time," Thomas Mellon said, "and continued more and more so until the collapse of 1873."

Many banks failed - yet T. Mellon & Sons' Bank was open and transacting business with its usual orderly calm.

"We never closed," said the Judge, "and never entirely stopped payment to those in need. In less than a month, we were prepared to pay all checks as presented." This was a remarkable achievement in Pittsburgh where fifty percent of the ninety organized banks and twelve private banks failed.

Gentlemanly Conduct

Judge Mellon was humane and considerate. As he put it, "I remember when my parents were in the same condition under the collapse of 1819 and their hard struggles and deprivations to save themselves; and the sympathy produced by this early experience inclined me to be lenient and indulgent to all who made any earnest effort. We forfeited no contracts where the parties were doing the best they could to pay for and hold their property."

As in all his dealings, Judge Thomas Mellon felt that "Men in any condition of life will act better if treated as gentlemen."

On January 5, 1882 Judge Thomas Mellon fulfilled the plan he had when he founded his bank by stepping down and giving it to his son, Andrew W. Mellon. Andrew had worked with him for nine years and had been given a one-fifth interest at the outset.

Shortly afterward Andrew Mellon gave half of the bank to his brother Richard B. Mellon. Thus began an era of cooperation and banking success which grew to worldwide status. That close association extended from business to social matters; they always acted together.

Thomas Mellon had a searching mind and deep understanding of the principles of human behavior. He never shirked his responsibilities to appraise people and circumstances, to make decisions based on his principles and to carry them out. He was a born leader among men. He set standards of morality, ethics, and taste that formed a model for the Mellons who have descended from him. He was a major spokesman of his day on matters of religion, politics, military, medicine, philosophy, ethics, science, labor, law, social betterment, education, travel and finance. He participated successfully in many businesses (particularly in coal and real estate) and knew and worked with local citizens in all walks of life. He was a striking example of the triumphs of individual motivation, imagination and hard work.

A Rewarding Life

Hard-headed though he was in business, he was basically a religious and sentimental man. Above all he was a devoted husband and family man. He described his marriage as "the luckiest event in my life," and of his long life he said as he neared the end "all has gone well."

Quotations are from the autobiography Thomas Mellon and His Times, which will be republished next year by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Judge Mellon (1813-1908) is buried in the Mellon-Negley plot in Section 19. Mellon's parents are also buried there

Judge and Founder of Mellon Bank in 1870. Thomas Mellon was elected Judge, Court of Common Pleas, and took his place on the bench on December 1, 1859.

"DIES AT RIPE OLD AGE.

 Pittsburg, Feb. 3 - Judge Thomas D. Mellon, one of Pittsburg's foremost citizens and well known throughout the country as a banker and capitalist, died here today on his ninety-fifth birthday."

Tuesday, February 4, 1908
Paper: Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, MT)
Volume: XIX
Issue: 154
Page: 12* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 21 2024, 9:28:16 UTC